Ledger: No. 5 West Virginia focused on avenging loss to No. 23 South Fla.

[Jim Johnson]

From the Lakeland Ledger

No. 5 West Virginia focused on avenging loss to No. 23 South Fla.

No sooner had West Virginia's vaunted rushing offense answered a challenge on the field and the postgame microphones turned on, when coach Rich Rodriguez was already talking about a bigger test.

No. 5 West Virginia played nearly flawless football in pounding East Carolina 49-7 Saturday.

Next up, a rematch Friday night at No. 23 South Florida, which beat West Virginia 24-19 last year in Morgantown.

"I said 'You all know who is next.' They blurted it out," Rodriguez said. "People talk about revenge, but that's not a great motivator. They are excited about trying to play better than we did against them last year."

The Mountaineers played better than it did against East Carolina, which had held the Mountaineers under 200 yards rushing in two previous meetings.

West Virginia amassed 397 yards on the ground and 599 overall Saturday. Now comes a short week of rest for Friday night's conference opener with the Bulls, who held the Mountaineers' rush offense to a season-low 153 rushing yards last year.

"Our guys are anxious to play in the Big East Conference," Rodriguez said. "They've got a really good football team."

They had one last year, too. South Florida's win last year was termed by coach Jim Leavitt as the biggest in the school's 11-year football history.

That loss is still fresh on the minds of West Virginia's players.

"We are focused right now. It's business," said West Virginia wide receiver Dorrell Jalloh. "We can't fool around."

West Virginia had added depth to its offense since that game.

Five players had at least 40 yards rushing against East Carolina on Saturday, and White threw to eight different receivers in going 18-of-20 for 181 yards. Darius Reynaud, who didn't start at wide receiver due to a shoulder injury, caught five passes for 54 yards.

"We keep doing that, we will show the world we should be on top," Reynaud said. "We have been waiting for this since we lost last year. We can't wait for this. It's Friday night football under the lights."

West Virginia's defense, criticized over the past year for allowing opposing quarterbacks to have some of their best games, turned in its top performance in recent memory. East Carolina managed just nine first downs and 160 total yards.

"I feel like each game we are getting better," said West Virginia linebacker Bobby Hathaway. "We stressed getting as many blue hats to the ball as we can. We did a good job of that. We knew coming out we had to keep the intensity and not let up at all.

East Carolina didn't score until the final two minutes of the game.

"Obviously a zero is better than a seven, but as long as we are still executing, we aren't going to lose any sleep over it," Hathaway said.

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